Madder than that. Entertainer and social commentator Eric Lewis is among the thousands of Barbadians upset over government’s suggestion to move the retirement age to 72. Photo Copyright © 2022.
“These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.” Abraham Lincoln
THE CURRENT DISCUSSION about Barbados’ National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and pension reform is about more than monies running out in a decade or two, increasing contributions, and how long people should spend most of their productive lives as part of the regular labour force. With the recent billion-dollar loss to the NIS’ investment funds, it seems true enough that the scheme needs topping up significantly, and a reimagining—more than restructuring—of the scheme needs to yet again take place.
Can we trust Kim Tudor, the director of NIS, when she says our contributions are being well managed? Not as much as we would like when there was an over concentration of “government instruments,” suggesting an imprudent lack of diversity in the investments made on the people’s behalf. The fund, which now stands at four billion dollars, is in distress. Should some consideration be given to increasing the number of years or terms our members of parliament must serve for them to qualify for a pension? We are, after all, all in this together.
Or so we are being told.
I’m not here to argue over any of that. Eric Lewis has been doing it better with his posts on the suggestion Bajans should work harder longer in the sun, or air-conditioned offices—till possibly 72 instead of the current retirement age of 67.
“Wunna really want me work to 72 in trute? I could tell you that at 72, many days I gine get work when de place getting ready to close. Cause many days I gine wake up and can’t remember where hell I does work. And by de time I remember where I does work it gine be 4 o’clock.”
Cue the laugh-till-I-cry emoji.
Angry, indignant, incredulous, salty, and on point, Lewis is very much the voice of the people on the matter.
I know I have no desire to go so long in a job formally. Government must be hoping folks will either opt out early, reducing their transfer payments, or die trying, which is to say before claiming. The average life expectancy in Barbados is about 80. We haven’t even addressed how this will affect the attitude toward work of the next generation of our labour force, some of whom already feel the old guard has already been squatting far longer than necessary on youthful aspirations and opportunities.
Working to live
No, no, we haven’t thought about this. Because before such thoughts what needs to occur is a rethinking first of how we conceive of work and vital leisure.
Years ago, just before I was to be married and come to Barbados to live in the late 1990’s, a younger colleague of mine (we were part-time waiters together for a Caribbean catering outfit), in congratulating me and wishing me success, cautioned me about work.
I was very excited about my new job as a columnist at the Nation newspaper and all the unexpected excitement that was no doubt ahead of me. Darren nodded at my warm references to The Mrs (soon to be, not just yet) and my Back-to-the-Rock move.
“I wish you every happiness,” he said as we parted at Angrignon, our metro station, heading for separate buses. “Remember it’s work to live, even in Barbados, not the other way around.”
Hardly a new expression or concept, it was still the first time I had heard it put that way. Work to live, I thought. And not live to work? Right. Made sense. Not everyone did. Not everyone believed they could.
“You’re a wise man,” I shouted back to him, smiling, but Darren was already on the 106.
Thinking back now, I had another friend at the time, also a writer, editor and publisher, who had adopted this simple advice as his work philosophy.
Emru got up every morning with two thoughts in his head, or so he claimed. One was to “write to mortgage.” The second was to figure out what other adventures, mischief, play, or indeed writing (for himself, not the animation and tech mags he freelanced for) he could get up to—all the more fun if they involved his wife and their baby boy. For as long as he was alive, these two engines drove his household. When Emru died of leukemia at the age of 39, I’m sure he had fewer regrets than most about how he had spent his waking, working hours. He barbecued in the winter, these wonderful homemade hamburgers marbled with blue cheese, and pursued passion projects in animation, as it suited him. As he had organized his time to suit him.
How do we, Barbadians, think about our work? How do we fell about what work is and why work is, right now, as we complete the first quarter of the 21st century? My examples are from 30 years ago, and from men who, though born Canadian like me, were of Caribbean descent, in their case Jamaican and Trinidadian, respectively. What do Barbadians want from the work they do, and what is this work meant to produce for them while they’re doing it? When would we say is a reasonable time to stop such activity, whatever the activity, and do something else with our bodies and minds?
We should be a long way off the plantation. By that I mean it is no longer reasonable, either, to think we can wait until we retire to do all the things we dreamed of doing because we are too busy with work. If I live to 80, how many healthy, mobile years will I really have to tick off the items on any list?
Our bucket lists need to be converted to what's-next lists. Notions of either/or need to be replaced with a philosophy of this and that—and that and that! Replaced with a sense of just now, not of some forever-rolled-back departure date. We always say we don’t have tomorrow put down. Yet many, maybe most of us, still act as if we do. There needs to be a different approach to how we work, but also to how we save, invest, travel, eat, exercise, watch our shows, interact with our families and our environment, and treat the dog.
Pumping billions or trillions into a pension fund will not resolve the fundamental problem of deciding how much of our time should be ours, spent living, and how much of our work should reasonably support that living.
In the age, or aftermath, of The Great Resignation, following The Stupefying Pandemic, we are in the best position ever to rethink our relationship to work. We are already working differently, in some cases even smarter, to how we were three years ago, and proving new arrangements between employer and employee can work, not only between us and our technology. Next is to figure out how to spend our working days progressively in a way that supports the kinds of lives we truly want to live, and how to retire in a way that doesn’t make it seem like such an end-of-the-line destination.
Robert Edison Sandiford is the cofounding editor with the poet Linda M. Deane of ArtsEtc Inc. He is the author of several award-winning books and well-received graphic novels. Read more by Robert at dcbooks.ca, nbmpub.com and writersunion.ca/member/robertedison-sandiford.
Last Modified: December 9, 2022
